Cerulean's Lead Candidate Presented in Talk on Nanoparticle Delivery at ASCO Annual Meeting

Published on June 11, 2014 at 3:42 AM

Cerulean Pharma Inc., a leader in Dynamic Tumor Targeting™, today announced that Mark E. Davis, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, presented information about Cerulean's lead candidate, CRLX101, in a presentation entitled "Nanoparticle Delivery Platform for Solid Tumors" at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting held in Chicago on Monday, June 2nd.

Dr. Davis gave a detailed talk on the potential benefits of nanopharmaceuticals. In his presentation, he described the scientific basis for the development of nanoparticle-based medicines for solid tumors. Dr. Davis also provided an update on the current status of clinical trials for nanoparticle-based medicines and the future of these medicines.

Featured prominently in Dr. Davis' talk were data from clinical and pre-clinical studies of CRLX101, a drug candidate he invented and which Cerulean is evaluating in multiple clinical trials. Among other data presented, Dr. Davis highlighted data demonstrating CRLX101's favorable pharmacokinetic profile in rats, dogs, and humans, and CRLX101's controlled release of its anti-tumor payload, camptothecin. He also presented florescent images of pre-treatment and post-treatment biopsy tissue from gastric cancer patients that show the presence of CRLX101 and its camptothecin payload in gastric tumors and not in neighboring healthy tissue. In addition, Dr. Davis presented pre-clinical and clinical data demonstrating CRLX101's durable inhibition of hypoxia-inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a), which is possible because of the slow release of the camptothecin payload from the nanoparticle.

"Mark Davis is a pioneer in nanopharmaceuticals and a leader in the field," said Oliver S. Fetzer, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Cerulean. "All of us at Cerulean are grateful to Dr. Davis for his ambassadorship for the potential of nanopharmaceuticals. We also are grateful to Dr. Davis' wife, who encouraged and inspired him to embark on a journey to improve outcomes for people living with cancer, as chronicled in a May 29 Nature article, 'Nanotechnology: Deliver on a promise.' The Cerulean team is working hard to move CRLX101 through the clinic, with the hope that it can achieve the high expectations of its inventor, Dr. Davis, for people living with cancer."

About CRLX101

CRLX101 is a dynamically tumor-targeted nanopharmaceutical designed to concentrate in tumors and slowly release its anti-cancer payload, camptothecin, inside tumor cells. CRLX101 inhibits topoisomerase 1 (topo 1), which is involved in cellular replication, and hypoxia-inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a), which research suggests is a master regulator of cancer cell survival mechanisms thought to promote drug and radiation resistance. CRLX101 has shown activity in late-stage disease in three different tumor types, both as monotherapy and in combination with Avastin®. CRLX101 is currently in Phase 2 clinical development and has been dosed in more than 200 patients.

About Cerulean's Dynamic Tumor Targeting Platform

Cerulean's Dynamic Tumor Targeting Platform creates nanopharmaceuticals that are designed to provide safer and more effective cancer treatments. We believe our nanopharmaceuticals concentrate their anti-cancer payloads inside tumors while sparing normal tissue because they are small enough to pass through the "leaky" vasculature present in tumors but are too large to pass through the wall of healthy blood vessels. Once inside tumors, our nanopharmaceuticals enter tumor cells where they slowly release anti-cancer payloads from within the tumor cells.

About Cerulean

The Cerulean team is committed to improving treatment for people living with cancer. We apply our Dynamic Tumor Targeting Platform to create a portfolio of nanopharmaceuticals designed to selectively attack tumor cells, reduce toxicity by sparing the body's normal cells and enable therapeutic combinations. Our lead product candidate, CRLX101, is in multiple clinical trials with approved cancer treatments with the aim of unlocking the power of combination therapy.